Nobody likes hard, stiff towels – we tell you how to get your towels fluffy-soft again.

Many causes for hard towels

  • Incorrectly dosed washing powder
  • Drying without drafts

The dream of the towel, as you know it from the advertising: Fluffy, tender, cuddly and soft it should be in the ideal case. Unfortunately, you often have the opposite at home, reminiscent of sandpaper. Rigid, hard towels, which can hardly be brought out of the rigid form even when drying for the first time. How does it actually happen that towels can become so hard and rigid? There are several and different reasons for this. The culprit can be water that contains too much lime, the wrong dosage of washing powder, the filling level of the washing machine and even the wrong drying process. Here we have compiled for you what the most common causes of hard towels are and how you can get them soft again. You can find even more tips at Ask Team Clean.

Hard towels: Possible reasons for the “dry rigidity” of towels

Hard towels can be affected by the load and by the dosage of washing powder in the washing machine. If you use too much washing powder, the fibers of the fabric will stick together and will not be able to straighten. In most cases, the towels will feel harder after washing than before. If there is too little washing powder, lime can penetrate the fibers and deposit. This has the same effect and the towels feel hard. Worth reading: Five situations in which aspirin is helpful, you will learn in our article.

If you pack the washing machine way too full, you basically achieve the same result. The laundry is not washed properly due to the overfilling of the machine. This results in either lime scale deposits or detergent deposits on the towels. If you find the right balance in both factors, the fibers of the towels are rinsed optimally and straighten up again after washing. This is the desired result, which makes towels feel fluffy and soft to the touch.

If the water is particularly hard, it is advisable to soak the towels in vinegar water for about half an hour before washing. After that, the towels should be rinsed roughly. Then they can be washed in the machine as usual. The vinegar prevents lime from settling in the fibers. For white and light-colored towels, a lye of citric acid also helps very well to make the towels soft and fresh again. You can find citric acid in powder and liquid form.

Soften hard towels: Tips for a great result

The classic for fluffy soft towels is certainly the dryer. Due to the whirling around in the warm air caused in the dryer, the fibers of the towels all line up again and the towels feel cuddly soft afterwards. If you want to undo this effect, you iron the towels.

The misconception that fabric softener makes towels soft is a persistent one. The fabric softener gums up the textile fibers so that they cannot straighten up in the dryer and the towels remain hard. Besides vinegar and citric acid, washing soda and baking soda would be better choices. For this you prepare a lye, in which you put the towels for a certain time. afterwards you wash them normally, as usual, in the machine.

Another factor in whether or not towels become quite hard after washing is drying. If the towels dry in the air, where there is no air circulation, they also become hard. So, it is ideal to hang the towels outside in a light wind and not in the blazing sun. This also makes them nice and soft. Shaking out or kneading the already dry towels vigorously also helps to make them soft again. Processing straightens compressed textile fibers again.